Laurie Hernandez Brings 'Big Theater Kid Energy' to Broadway's & Juliet

Laurie Hernandez, the two-time medal-winning Olympic gymnast, is transitioning from balance beam to Broadway stage. The 25-year-old is making her Broadway debut in the featured dance role of Charmion in & Juliet, while balancing graduation from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The gold medalist spoke to Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek about discovering and falling in love with theater, her time at drama school and the learning curve she encountered ahead of her debut.

Hernandez grew up in Old Bridge, New Jersey, which she describes as “right under the nose of Broadway.” Between home-schooling and a demanding sports background, there wasn’t exactly time for theater to be a part of her life. “Wanting to get into the theater world, it was something that I had to do on my own,” Hernandez says. “It was a love that I really created for myself.”

At just 16 years olf, Hernandez won gold in the team event and an individual silver medal in the balance beam at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. When she and the rest of her “Final Five” teammates were asked what they’d most like to do next, someone brought up Hamilton. They had the opportunity to see it and Hernandez was formally introduced to Broadway. “I think that really opened my eyes,” she says. “And I had done Dancing with the Stars after. We had a Broadway week. I did Chicago. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is awesome.’” She all-too-humbly neglected to mention that she won Dancing with the Stars alongside pro dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy.

The decision to major in drama at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts came out of a desire to get into acting and entertainment, as well as wanting to live on the East Coast and be near her family again. "It's exciting to have that drive and that curiosity; I've had it for something before, and I'm always ready to let my curiosity lead," she says. "Being able to audition for & Juliet and now be a part of it as Charmion is a huge dream come true." Hernandez will graduate in May, but not to worry—she’s taken her graduation day off from & Juliet. Of her four years in drama school, she spent two at Stella Adler studio. “There's a lot of Shakespeare work that's in there as well,” Hernandez remarks; very fitting for her debut performance! As time went on in classes, Hernandez found herself “falling more and more in love with it.”

Jennifer Weber’s hip-hop choreography in & Juliet is a lot different from the dancing that took place in Hernandez’s Puerto Rican home growing up. “I had so much to learn in such a short amount of time,” she says. “I did not know how to sit in the pocket and I can only groove so well on my own. I needed a lot of help with that, and they were so patient with me.” Weber’s choreography features a blend of many different dance styles that require muscles even an Olympic gymnast did not already have.

But Hernandez’s life of “pure dedication and tunnel vision” in gymnastics created a strong work ethic that brought her to the Broadway stage. A “thank you, I’m new here” attitude coupled with her “big theater kid energy” piqued her interest in the world of theater even more. “It was definitely a learning process to be able to connect with that side of me and then learn the choreography as one thing, learn the singing parts and then marry the two of them together,” she says. Now, she's doing it all eight shows a week.

On Broadway, both on stage and off, Hernandez is enjoying herself immensely. “This is, again, just such a different environment and so many different things are being asked of me,” she recognizes. But, she goes on to say, “This chapter of my life is one that if I could just redo over and over and over again, I would, because it's been so wonderful.” Hernandez will perform in & Juliet at the Sondheim Theatre through June 14.

Watch the full interview below.

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